Thousands of people braved the bad weather to enjoy the huge variety of foods and drinks on offer in stalls all along the Liverpool street which connects the city’s two cathedrals.

Now in its fifth year, Hope Street – along with parts of Hardman Street and Myrtle Street – was closed to traffic allowing food-lovers to browse the dozens of stalls at their leisure.

Those who attended the event were able to sample some of the tastiest delights – from an extraordinary selection of pick and mix sweets and a chocolate fountain at one end to African and Caribbean chicken jerk at the far end of the street.

Local traders were well represented with the Liverpool Cheese Company providing a huge selection of cheeses; The Chocolate Cellar, where staff assured customers that “chocolate is for any weather”.

Just along from there was David McCreadie whose business Derimon was offering live lobsters caught by the stallholder himself in the Menai Strait just the day before.

Further along at Mary’s Cakes, based in Wirral, Mary Walton was cooking up scones on request for a queue of customers.

She said: “It hasn’t been as busy as last year. It was gloriously sunny last year.

“But there’s still a huge variety of different types of food – that’s what is so wonderful about Liverpool, it’s very cosmopolitan.”

Simon Glinn, executive director of the Philharmonic Hall and manager of the event, said the event garnered “a lot of good will and value” for the cost and praised those involved.

He said: “But the people I am most grateful to are the people of Liverpool who turned out in such enormous numbers despite the weather”, and said there had been “a phenomenal turnout”.